The Christian History Devotional

Could you spare five minutes per day to get acquainted with some truly fascinating people and events? If so, you'll love The Christian History Devotional, where each day you'll learn more about your "spiritual family," people who are as much a part of the rich Christian heritage as the people of the Bible. In these 365 vignettes you'll meet some names that will be familiar: Billy Graham, Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, John Wesley, Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, Augustine, Corrie ten Boom. You'll also meet Christian athletes (Olympic runner Eric Liddell), scientists (George Washington Carver, Johannes Kepler), authors (G. K. Chesterton, John Milton, Anne Bradstreet), statesmen (William Gladstone, William Jennings Bryan), missionaries (Gladys Aylward, William Carey, Francis Xavier), evangelists (Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody, "Gypsy" Smith), artists (Rembrandt, Michelangelo), social reformers (William Wilberforce, Josephine Butler), soldiers ("Stonewall" Jackson, Oliver Cromwell), and many others, from the first century to the present, a diverse cast of truly amazing people. Turn to August 12, the day in 1973 when political "hatchet man" Chuck Colson gave his life to Christ. March 21, read about devout composer Johann Sebastian Bach, born on that date in 1685. April 1, learn about Communist-spy-turned-Christian Whittaker Chambers, born in 1901. October 15, meet evangelist Sam Jones, for whom the Ryman Auditorium (Grand Ole Opry) was built. October 31, discover what led Martin Luther to launch the Reformation in 1517. Whether you're a history buff or someone who always thought history was boring, here's a book to enlarge your spiritual family and teach you valuable lessons about life and faith. Here is history with a heart.

What happened on this date in church history? From ancient Rome to the twenty-first century, from peasants to presidents, from missionaries to martyrs, this book shows how God does extraordinary things through ordinary people every day of the year. Each story appears on the day and month that it occurred and includes questions for reflection and a related Scripture verse.

"Christian historians offer reflections on various historical events and figures in light of passages from Scripture, encouraging lay engagement with the past through the lens of religious devotion"--

“Captivating reading that builds the faith while it fills the mind with greatness.”—Sherwood Wirt, former editor, DECISION Magazine One of this century's greatest writers of fact, fiction, and fantasy explores, in utterly beautiful terms, questions of faith in the modern world: • On the experience of miracles • On silence and religious belief • On the assumed conflict between work and prayer • On the error of trying to lead “a good life” without Christ • On the necessity of dogma to religion • On the dangers of national repentance • On the commercialization of Christmas . . . and more “The searching mind and the poetic spirit of C.S. Lewis are readily evident in this collection of essays edited by his one-time secretary, Walter Hopper. Here the reader finds the tough-mind polemicist relishing the debate; here too the kindly teacher explaining a complex abstraction by means of clarifying analogies; here the public speaker addressing his varied audience with all the humility and grace of a man who knows how much more remains to be unknown.”—The New York Times Book Review

Here are 365 classic hymn texts, along with stories of how they came to be written. This is an ideal startling point for personal or family devotions.

"At the Origins of Christian Worship" can deepen readers' understanding of early Christian worship by setting it within the context of the Roman world in which it developed. Hurtado highlights the two central characteristics of earliest Christian worship: its exclusive rejection of the ancient-world gods and its inclusion of Christ with God as the focus of devotion.

This volume introduces readers to preachers, popes, martyrs, heroes, and saints from 2,000 years of Christianity. This introduction to 365 of the most interesting men and women of faith brings a year's worth of inspiration and spiritual challenge.

This outstanding book provides an in-depth historical study of the place of Jesus in the religious life, beliefs, and worship of Christians from the beginnings of the Christian movement down to the late second century. Lord Jesus Christ is a monumental work on earliest Christian devotion to Jesus, sure to replace Wilhelm Bousset s Kyrios Christos (1913) as the standard work on the subject. Larry Hurtado, widely respected for his previous contributions to the study of the New Testament and Christian origins, offers the best view to date of how the first Christians saw and reverenced Jesus as divine. In assembling this compelling picture, Hurtado draws on a wide body of ancient sources, from Scripture and the writings of such figures as Ignatius of Antioch and Justin to apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth. Hurtado considers such themes as early beliefs about Jesus divine status and significance, but he also explores telling devotional practices of the time, including prayer and worship, the use of Jesus name in exorcism, baptism and healing, ritual invocation of Jesus as Lord, martyrdom, and lesser-known phenomena such as prayer postures and the curious scribal practice known today as the nomina sacra. The revealing portrait that emerges from Hurtado s comprehensive study yields definitive answers to questions like these: How important was this formative period to later Christian tradition? When did the divinization of Jesus first occur? Was early Christianity influenced by neighboring religions? How did the idea of Jesus divinity change old views of God? And why did the powerful dynamics of early beliefs and practices encourage people to make the costly move of becoming a Christian? Boasting an unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage — the book speaks authoritatively on everything from early Christian history to themes in biblical studies to New Testament Christology — Hurtado s Lord Jesus Christ is at once significant enough that a wide range of scholars will want to read it and accessible enough that general readers interested at all in Christian origins will also profit greatly from it.